Diabetics are always attempting to tightly control their blood glucose levels so as to avoid the detrimental effects of their condition. High blood glucose levels, commonly referred to as hyperglycemia, can for example lead to organ damage, ketoacidosis, and/or long term debilitating or life-threatening conditions. If left untreated, low blood glucose conditions, commonly referred to as hypoglycemia, can lead to unconsciousness or even death. To avoid these problems, diabetics typically monitor their blood glucose levels closely and sometimes make adjustments to their treatment regimen so as to avoid hypoglycemia and hyperglycemia. For example, when experiencing hypoglycemia, a health care provider (HCP) may recommend that a diabetic ingest a specific amount of carbohydrates (e.g., drink a specific amount of orange juice) in order to raise their blood glucose levels. However, follow up assessments to see if the hypoglycemia has been addressed sometimes does not occur. Moreover, the prescribed amount of carbohydrate may not be appropriate in some circumstances.
Hypoglycemia occurs when glucose is lacking in the blood plasma. Thus, hypoglycemia is usually detected by the use of spot monitoring by measuring blood glucose concentration. intracellular glucose deficiency (IGD) is caused by decreased performance of tissues whose cell plasma contains too little glucose. When an individual has excessive amounts of insulin, glucose migrates in the cells, thereby inducing a decrease in glucose concentration in both the blood plasma and the interstitial fluid (ISF). This in turn can lead to both hypoglycemia and intracellular glucose deficiency. Blood plasma glucose concentration (BG) and tissue glucose concentration (TG) vary as a function of endogenous glucose production and glucose consumption in the cells. However, such a change does not occur at the same time in blood and tissue. Consequently, there is a delay between changes in blood plasma glucose concentration and tissue glucose concentration. This delay varies depending on the tissue type but the average time difference can span up to 20 minutes and the difference in concentration can be estimated to about 30 mg/dL in up to 66% of the body locations. It should be recognized that this delay can create a whole host of issues in properly remedying a hypoglycemic event.
Thus, there is a need for improvement in this field.